Will Krysten Sinema Change Parties?
EconoSpeak: Will Krysten Sinema Change Parties?, Barkley Rosser, October 5, 2021
I have resisted posting something like this, but while I have yet to see anybody else suggest it, this possibility has been on my mind now for several days.
We have never seen to my knowledge a senator refuse to offer their views on possible resolution of a major disagreement involving money. The contrast to Sen. Sinema is her associate in the Senate in blocking various Dem initiatives (including undoing the filibuster, which would really open things up), Joe Manchin of WV. For how annoying he may be, at least we understand that he comes from one of the most pro-Trump states in the country, as well as the state being the heart of coal in the nation, so no surprise he resists limits on fossil fuels. So, no surprise he is resisting. But he art least actually provides numbers he wants and seems to be open to negotiation to come to a conclusion.
But Sinema is playing a game never seen before, ever. She says nothing. Apparently last week she had four private meetings at the White House with President Biden, yes, four. Apparently he tried really hard to get her to the Manchin stage, actually saying a number, much less details of what she would like to see removed from the current $3.5 trillion (over ten years) reconciliation bill. She may have hoped the House would pass the hard infrastructure bill, which she supports, so she and Manchin would have been in a position to either cherry pick details or outright block the soft reconciliation bill. I am unclear how much of her unprecedented behavior is a matter of ignorance and stupidity or something else.
So, here I am worrying about the something else. She was originally a Green, supporting Ralph Nader in 2000 when his campaign probably put Bush in instead of Gore. So, she has been drifting to the right, with this buzz about her personal life that got mocked on SNL last Saturday. So now we have this spectacle of her refusal to even meet with AZ voter groups has led to her being “harassed” as Fox News is now huffing and puffing about. Poor thing, people filming her in a restroom and confronting her in various public places. Poor thing.
Well, I am now getting suspicious of what she is up to here with all this, whether it comes before or after whatever resolution of all these big policy debates comes about, not to mention the matter of the debt ceiling issue, which would easily be handled if the filibuster would be shut down, which she could decisively support. But, hey, McConnell is looking at polls that suggest that if a failure to raise the debt ceiling leads to a major economic crash, a majority of voters will blame Biden and the Dems.
So we get reports that rather than meeting with AZ voters who supported her, much less saying a single word about a number or details on the reconciliation bill that might lead her to support it, she has been meeting repeatedly with various corporate funders giving her money and urging her to at least modify if not just outright oppose the reconciliaton bill. What does this mean?
I fear this is a prelude to a cataclysmic move: Sinema changing parties to the GOP. This would put the GOP in charge of the US Senate, with Mitch McConnell in charge there. This would be the end of basically anything Biden or other Dems would like to do at all in the Congress. Sinema already is more popular in the GOP than she is with Dems. With piles of corporate money, the GOP in the Senate would welcome her munificently and reward her greatly. But while this might make her a short-term star, AZ is changing, and Dems will make sure this is the last term she serves in the Senate if she follows through on this, and may well do so anyway through the primary process if she stays with the Dems while continuing to behave as she has been recently.
Barkley Rosser
Couple of things here. If she refuses to go along with the Dems, Biden’s agenda is finished and switching parties really wouldn’t matter. If she does it will have no effect on her political future, of which she has about 40 months left.
She could never win a GOP primary, she voted to impeach Trump twice. And she will never win another Dem primary, she has cut off her base. I personally know 6 people that worked on her campaign in 2018 who have vowed to work for whomever her primary opponent is. She is going to have a tough time coming up with a campaign staff, and she sure isn’t going to get much help from the party.
She is either having a mental breakdown or looking for a future at Fox news.
Why not both (crazy as a fox)?
Or, she could make big bucks as a lobbyist.
Manchin is already holding parties for Republican colleagues on his yacht…and he’s not likely to give an inch on reconciliation…
Sen. Joe Manchin, who is holding up crucial climate change initiatives in Biden’s reconciliation bill, collects Half a Million a Year From Coal Stocks Dividends: Report
not sure, Barkley, but was it you who once suggested Justice would be better? he’s got more coal properties than Manchin, and he’s crooked to boot…
“probably put Bush in”
Thanks for saying probably. My Dad cast his protest vote for Nader even though he would have been horrified if Nader had won. He won’t change parties even though he does not vote for his party’s presidential candidates.
The Democrats have gone completely insane and turned into a party of Nazis. God bless her -she and Manchin are all that remains of sanity in the Dems.
Chris:
I am in AZ now and I will be calling her out on her stance with Pharma. We will see how she makes out after I write about how Pharma screws people like yourself with unsupported price increases. She is a chameleon.